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The Aladdin show at Disney’s California Adventure is still the best place to take a nap in the parks. It’s heated/air conditioned, dark, and has comfy chairs. Obviously this only applies when you have seen the show before because it actually is a really great adaptation of the movie and the guy who plays Genie improvises (I think) and it’s great.

It’s a really bad idea to go to Disneyland without checking their Twitter to see if it’s a busy day. Imagine a normal day at Disneyland…then multiple that crowd by 10.

Davey Havok from the band AFI, or some guy who looks suspiciously like him, eats at Urth Cafe.

The new Ke$ha album is actually really, REALLY catchy.

Breaking Bad is really great and actually deserving of the hype.

Leonardo DiCaprio never getting awards/recognition is one of my favorite running jokes.

They still play Drake and Josh reruns on Nickelodeon.

Catfish is absolutely hilarious only because you sit there going “WHY DID YOU NOT USE SKYPE? DID YOU REALLY THINK IT WAS NORMAL TO NOT TALK TO THIS PERSON ON THE PHONE? GIRL YOU LIVE 15 MINUTES AWAY FROM THIS PERSON AND DIDN’T THINK IT WAS WEIRD YOU NEVER MET IN PERSON? HAVE YOU EVER HEARD OF GOOGLE?!” and so on. Also it somehow doesn’t phase the Catfish people that some girl pretended to be a guy on Facebook for two years so she could distract her boyfriend’s other chick (hay Mhissy hay). Continue reading →

I’m really bad with keeping up with this blog but figured I should post something before the year ends.

Since the last time I updated, I started my MA program at NYU and moved to New York. It’s been a huge change (one that was quite difficult at first), but it’s definitely been a learning experience. I’m happy to say that I’m enjoying my time there now and school has definitely contributed to my overall happiness. The beginning half of this year was possibly the hardest time period in my life – having to learn how to accept “no” as an answer multiple times, realizing that I need to stop acting entitled just because I have an expensive sheet of paper, learning how to be happy for other people even as my self-confidence dwindles, learning how to swallow my pride and face the fact that nothing is really “below my standards,” and so on – but I do believe I am a better person overall for having experienced it. Did it suck? Obviously. Would I do it again? Hopefully not, but I am, in a strange way, grateful for January – August because I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes and how to be satisfied and thankful for any opportunity that comes my way.

Now that I’ve explained my current and past mentality for this year, I’ll move on to much more exciting and entertaining things. This is a post about the pop culture-y things I’ve enjoyed this year – anything from movies, tv shows, music, YouTube videos, etc. I have to admit there isn’t anything groundbreaking here as I was/am a bit slow to catch onto things, at least for 2012, due in part to my lack of time and (mostly) in part to my laziness. Some of these items listed are things I’m sure most people already know about and may have even moved past or gotten over. Oh well!

So here are the things, in no particular order, that provided an escape, entertained me, or helped me procrastinate:

I was lucky enough to catch a free screening of “Brave” on Monday and was excited to finally see a Pixar film with a female protagonist. These past few years, Pixar has become the breadwinner in the Disney/Pixar partnership and have put out films that are consistently lauded and top Best Films of the Year lists. However, can you believe up until now they haven’t had a female lead? Even my favorite Pixar film, “Up,” lacks a substantial female character. As a child of the 90s, I grew up watching a lot of the Disney Princess films and while there’s nothing wrong with them (I think most of my friends know how much I love Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, and Mulan), they always ended with the princess finding true love (even though Mulan was a badass and saved the entire country, there just had to be a love story with Shang). I think a lot of people were excited to see what Pixar would do with a female protagonist because the animation studio has always produced innovative films for all ages. Now that I’ve seen “Brave,” I can say that I hope Pixar continues to put out films with more females.

I walked into this movie not knowing much about it, having not seen the trailer, and only vaguely hearing about the controversy surrounding the director debacle, and though I enjoyed it for what it was, I walked out wishing for something more. One of my favorite things about Pixar films is that they cater to both children and adults. Sure, it’s a stunningly animated film with cute characters, but underneath it all a Pixar film manages to present a story with a deeper meaning. Finding Nemo was about the relationship between a father and son. Wall-E was about the dangers the Earth faced if humans continued to live the way they do. Up was about learning to move past the difficulties life presented you with and go on any sort of adventure, big or small. At the heart of it, Brave is about the relationship between a mother and a daughter and how to learn and accept one another.

I don’t want to go too much into the plot because I’d hate to spoil it for anyone, but I do wish that Pixar had done more with the mother/daughter relationship. It felt a bit rushed for me and a part of me wonders if the story would’ve had a different tone had Brenda Chapman stayed on as director. I mean, does a male director really understand the bond between a mother and a daughter? I think that is what bothered me the most throughout the film. Although I thought the animation was stunning at times (particularly the landscape shots), I will admit that my first reaction to seeing Brave ads was that it looked like a DreamWorks film. It lacked a bit of the Pixar charm and I feel awful for saying this because I really want this film to succeed and show Disney/Pixar that female led films are profitable and are worth the time to make them.

Again, I really enjoyed Brave and encourage everyone to see it. It’s very cute and funny and has great animation. I am excited that this generation has a female Disney character to look up to and Merida is a fantastic choice. However, there was just something missing in this film and so I can only say it was good, not great.

This is the truth. I can waste hours on YouTube watching anything from tv show clips (if it hasn’t been taken down…) to concert videos (as painful and shaky as some of them may be) to old commercials from my childhood (I’m still stuck in the 90s).

Because it’s summer and I have more free time, I can watch EVEN MORE YouTube videos now! Well, to be honest, it’s not like school really stopped me before. Shameful, utterly shameful. Anyway, I’m going to try to make posts once a week with my favorite YouTube videos that I’ve found recently and hopefully other people who haven’t seen them already, will enjoy them too!

The Secret Life of the Disneyland Character aka “Tigger and Pooh Bear: Got Swag Cat Daddy at Disneyland!”
*the original video seems to have been pulled so this is a copy that has been re-uploaded

I love how these guys thought they were gonna Tigger all these moves and really it was the other way around.

Sqee aka “mini warbler performing to teenage dream”

Not a huge fan of Glee anymore, but who can resist a tiny kid singing ‘Teenage Dream’ almost as good as Darren Criss and his crew?

Harry Potter and OH-MY-GOD-SOMEONE-PASS-ME-THE-KLEENEX-ASAP aka “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II Final Trailer”

The film adaptations of Harry Potter have never been as good as the books, in my opinion, but the people at WB have always done a great job at putting together the film trailers. This is the very last HP film trailer (unless the series gets a reboot) and it is absolutely fantastic! They show a bit more than the other Deathly Hallows trailers and one scene in particular is totally going to kill me, if done right.

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You have stumbled upon my pop culture-y themed blog. Here I will try to put together my thoughts on various aspects of pop culture - television, movies, and music. Hopefully, you like it! Well, actually, if you hate it, that's fine too.
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